JP4274107B2 - Vehicle lighting - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp such as a head lamp, a tail lamp, and a stop lamp using an LED (light emitting diode) as a light source.

  FIG. 5 shows this type of vehicle lamp 100 (see, for example, Patent Document 1). The vehicular lamp 100 is generally configured by incorporating a plurality of projector units 103 in a substantially horizontal row in a lamp chamber formed by a transparent transparent cover 101 and a lamp housing 102. The vehicular lamp 100 is composed of ten projector units 103.

  FIG. 6 shows the projector unit 103 at this time. The projector unit 103 is generally configured to include a projector optical unit P that emits the light of the main LED 1 as it is or after being reflected by the main reflector 2 and then emitted forward through the convex lens 3.

  Specifically, the main LED 1 includes a semiconductor light emitting element T, a substrate 104, and a translucent member 105, and is configured as a whole by configuring the light emitting unit 1a with the semiconductor light emitting element T and the translucent member 105. The main LED 1 configures the light source of the projector unit 103 by setting the light emitting portion 1 a so as to face the main reflector 2. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 4 denotes a shade.

The vehicular lamp 100 configured as described above generally irradiates a predetermined light distribution pattern in front of the vehicle based on the light emitted by the ten projector units 103.
JP 2004-241262 A

  However, since the projector unit 103 constitutes the light source of the unit with one LED 1, the vehicular lamp 100 made up of a plurality of projector units 103 appears in color unevenness between the units 103 when turned on. This causes a problem that the appearance at the time of lighting is reduced.

  Further, since the projector unit 103 constitutes the light source of the unit with one LED 1, when it is necessary to install a plurality of LEDs 1 due to insufficient illuminance, the unit 103 corresponding to the number is installed. This also has the problem that the vehicular lamp 100 is increased in size.

  That is, in the projector unit 103, the optical system is constituted only by the projector optical part P that is the upper part thereof, and the lower part A (indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 6) is not effectively used. The area occupied by the LED 1 in 103 is substantially the same as the maximum cross-sectional area of the unit 103 (for example, the projected area of the convex lens 3). This is the same as the expansion of the space due to the increase in the number of installed lamps, and as described above, increases the size of the entire lamp.

  Therefore, the present invention eliminates the appearance of color unevenness at the time of lighting, can improve the appearance at the time of lighting, and can improve the illuminance without increasing the overall size of the lamp. The purpose is to provide.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 irradiates the hot zone light distribution by emitting the light of the main LED as it is or after being reflected by the main reflector and then emitting it forward through the convex lens. A vehicle lamp including a plurality of projector units each including a projector optical unit,
The projector unit is configured to include a diffusion optical unit that irradiates a diffused light distribution by reflecting the light of the sub LED by the sub reflector, and then emitting it forward as it is, at the lower part of the projector optical unit. And
The main LED constitutes a light source of the projector optical unit by being fixed to the upper surface of the heat sink with the light emitting portion facing upward and facing the main reflector.
The secondary LED constitutes the light source of the diffusion optical unit is fixed to the lower surface of the heat radiating plate is opposed to the secondary reflector and the light emitting portion downward,
The projector unit combines the hot zone light distribution and the diffuse light distribution.
A combined light distribution is emitted .

  Therefore, in the invention described in claim 1, the projector optical unit can irradiate the hot zone light distribution, and the diffusion optical unit can irradiate the diffuse light distribution. The projector unit provided can emit a combined light distribution of a hot zone light distribution and a diffuse light distribution.

  The vehicular lamp including a plurality of projector units irradiates a predetermined light distribution pattern in front of the vehicle as a whole based on light emitted from the plurality of projector units.

  At this time, even if there is color unevenness at the time of lighting of each LED, since it is a combined light of two LEDs consisting of a main LED and a sub LED in a unit unit, the color unevenness can be reduced. .

  In addition, since the unit is configured by incorporating two LEDs, the illuminance of the unit is improved and the area occupied by each LED is substantially less than that of one unit. be able to.

  In addition, since the diffusion optical unit is provided in the lower part of the projector optical unit, which is normally a dead space, the space can be used effectively, and the projector optical unit can irradiate the reflected light upward by the sub-reflector. It becomes a barrier and can be avoided as much as possible.

  Furthermore, since the main LED and the sub LED are respectively fixed to the upper surface and the lower surface of the heat radiating plate, the heat radiating plate can also be used.

Moreover, invention of Claim 2 is a vehicle lamp of Claim 1, Comprising:
The sub LED is fixed to the lower surface of the heat radiating plate in a state where the light emitting portion is inclined rearward.

  For this reason, in the invention according to claim 2, the range of the light of the sub LED incident on the sub reflector is widened, thereby reducing the light of the sub LED that cannot be reflected by the sub reflector and minimizing the light of the sub LED. Utilization efficiency can be improved.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the combined light of two LEDs is obtained in units of units, even if there is color unevenness at the time of lighting of each LED, the color unevenness is averaged and reduced. Thus, the appearance of color unevenness when the LED is turned on can be eliminated, and the appearance when the LED is turned on can be improved.

  In addition, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the LED itself is small in size, and the unit can incorporate two LEDs to improve the illuminance of each unit, and the area occupied by each LED can be incorporated into one unit. Because it can be substantially reduced compared to the conventional one, the diffusion optical part is provided in the lower part of the projector optical part, which is normally a dead space, and the main LED and the sub LED also serve as a heat sink Therefore, it is possible to provide a vehicular lamp that can improve the illuminance of the unit unit and can be made compact, and can improve the illuminance without increasing the overall size of the lamp.

  Further, according to the invention described in claim 2, since the light use efficiency of the sub LED can be improved, in addition to the effect of the invention of claim 1, the illuminance can be further improved.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Components having the same functions as those disclosed in FIGS. 5 and 6 are described with the same reference numerals.

  1 and 2 show a vehicular lamp 10 as a first embodiment of the present invention. The vehicular lamp 10 generally includes a plurality of projector units 13 each including a projector optical unit P that emits light from the main LED 1 as it is or after being reflected by the main reflector 2 and then forward through the convex lens 3. Has been.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 2, the vehicular lamp 10 is generally configured by incorporating a plurality of projector units 13 in a substantially horizontal row in a lamp chamber formed by a transparent transparent cover 11 and a lamp housing 12. ing. The vehicular lamp 10 is configured by incorporating five projector units 13 in a lamp chamber.

  At this time, as shown in FIG. 1, the projector unit 13 includes a diffusing optical part D that reflects the light of the sub LED 4 by the sub reflector 5 and then emits it forward as it is in the lower part of the projector optical part P. Configured.

  As shown in FIG. 1B, the main LED 1 is fixed to the upper surface 6a of the heat radiating plate 6 with the light emitting portion 1a facing upward and facing the main reflector 2, thereby making the light source of the projector optical portion P light. The sub LED 4 constitutes a light source of the diffusing optical part D by being fixed to the lower surface 6b of the heat radiating plate 6 with the light emitting part 4a facing downward and facing the sub reflector 5.

  More specifically, the projector optical unit P includes an upper casing 14 provided with the main reflector 2, a lower casing 15 provided with a shade 7 and coupled to the upper casing 14 from below, and a convex lens 3 mounted between the casings 14, 15. And the main LED 1 fixed to the upper surface 6a of the heat radiating plate 6 parallel to the optical axis Z of the convex lens 3.

  The main reflector 2 is formed in a dome shape having a main reflecting surface 2a having a front part and a lower part opened as a spheroidal curved surface or a free curved surface based on a rotating ellipse. An upper lens holder 8 having a semicircular cross section is formed integrally with the front portion of the reflector 2. The shade 7 has a reflection plane 7 a along the optical axis Z and is formed in a flat plate shape. The lower casing 15 is formed by integrally providing a lower lens holder 9 having a semicircular cross section at the front end of the shade 7. Yes. Engaging grooves 8a and 9a are formed at the tip portions of the upper and lower lens holders 8 and 9, respectively. The upper and lower casings 14 and 15 are integrally formed using a thermoplastic resin material such as polycarbonate resin or acrylic resin, and are entirely configured by applying a coating or vapor deposition having a reflection function on the inner surface.

  Further, the convex lens 3 is formed by using a transparent thermoplastic resin material such as an acrylic resin and provided with a thin mounting flange portion 3a on the outer periphery, and the heat radiating plate 6 is made of a good heat transfer metal such as aluminum. It is formed of a plate-like body.

  Then, the projector optical part P joins the casings 14 and 15 with the mounting flange part 3a fitted in each of the engaging grooves 8a and 9a, and the radiator plate 6 having the main LED 1 fixed to the upper surface 6a. The entire structure is formed by attaching to the lower surface of the shade 7.

  In the projector optical part P configured in this way, the main LED 1 is mounted with its light emitting part 1a positioned near the first focal point F1 of the main reflecting surface 2a, and the shade 7 has its front end at the main reflecting surface. The convex lens 3 is attached with its lens focal point RF substantially aligned with the front end of the shade 7.

  The diffusing optical part D includes a sub-reflector 5 attached by fixing a base end portion to the lower surface 6b of the heat sink 6 and a sub LED 4 fixed to the lower surface 6b of the heat sink 6 to which the main LED 1 is fixed. And is configured in the lower part of the projector optical part P.

  At this time, the sub-reflector 5 has a sub-reflecting surface 5a as a part of a paraboloid or a free-form surface based on the paraboloid on the inner surface and is formed in a curved tongue shape, such as a polycarbonate resin or an acrylic resin. In addition, the sub-reflection surface 5a is formed by applying a coating or vapor deposition having a reflection function on the inner surface.

  And the sub reflector 5 is attached by fixing the base end part to the lower surface 6b of the heat sink 6 in the state which made the sub reflection surface 5a face the lower casing 15 and the lower surface 6b of the heat sink 6, The sub LED 4 is fixed to the lower surface 6b of the heat radiating plate 6 with its light emitting portion 4a substantially matching the vicinity of the focal point F of the sub reflective surface 5a.

  As described above, the projector unit 13 includes the projector optical unit P and the diffusion optical unit D provided in the lower portion of the projector optical unit P.

  According to the projector unit 13, as shown in FIG. 3, the hot zone light distribution LP1 (FIG. 3A) can be irradiated with the light L1 from the projector optical unit P, and the light L2 from the diffusion optical unit D can be irradiated. Can irradiate the diffused light distribution LP2 (FIG. 3B) and irradiate the combined light distribution LP (FIG. 3C) in which the hot zone light distribution LP1 and the diffused light distribution LP2 are combined as a whole. Can do. The cut line CL at the upper edge of the hot zone light distribution LP1 is formed by the front end shape of the shade 7. In FIG. 1, symbol L <b> 0 indicates the light energy distribution of the sub LED 4, and indicates the incident state of the light of the sub LED 4 on the sub reflector 5.

  The vehicular lamp 10 including five projector units 13 can generally irradiate a predetermined light distribution pattern in front of the vehicle based on the light emitted by the five projector units 13.

  At this time, even if the individual LEDs 1 and 4 constituting the five projector units 13 have color unevenness at the time of lighting, the combined light of the two LEDs including the main LED 1 and the sub LED 4 is obtained in units. Therefore, the color unevenness can be reduced, thereby improving the appearance at the time of lighting.

  In addition, since the unit is configured by incorporating two LEDs 1 and 4, the illuminance per unit is improved, and the area occupied by each LED 1 and 4 is substantially larger than that of one unit. As a result, the illuminance can be improved without increasing the overall size of the vehicular lamp 10.

  Moreover, since the diffusing optical part D is provided in the lower part of the projector optical part P that normally becomes a dead space, the space can be used effectively, and in this respect as well, the overall size of the lamp can be suppressed. At the same time, the upward irradiation of the reflected light by the sub-reflector 5 can be avoided as much as possible by using the projector optical part P as a barrier, and the generation of glare light can also be suppressed.

  Furthermore, since the main LED 1 and the sub LED 4 are respectively fixed to the upper surface 6a and the lower surface 6b of the heat radiating plate 6, the heat radiating plate 6 is also used, thereby reducing both the number of parts and making the device compact.

  FIG. 4 shows a projector unit 16 applied to a vehicular lamp as a second embodiment of the present invention. This projector unit 16 is different from the projector unit 13 except for the mounting orientation of the sub LED 4.

  That is, in the projector unit 16, the sub LED 4 is fixed to the lower surface 6 b of the heat radiating plate 6 with the light emitting portion 4 a tilted rearward.

  In the present embodiment, a forwardly inclined surface 6c is formed on the lower surface 6b of the heat radiating plate 6. By fixing the sub LED 4 to the inclined surface 6c, the sub LED 4 tilts the light emitting portion 4a backward. It is fixed to the heat sink 6 in a state.

  In the projector unit 16 configured in this way, the range of light of the sub-LED 4 incident on the sub-reflector 5 is widened, thereby reducing the light of the sub-LED 4 that cannot be reflected by the sub-reflector 5 as much as possible. Light utilization efficiency can be improved.

  Incidentally, in the projector unit 13, the light L3 belonging to the low energy of the light energy distribution out of the light of the sub LED 4 appears as light that cannot be reflected by the sub reflector 5 (see FIG. 1B). In 16, the light L <b> 3 is also reflected by the sub-reflector 5 and can be used effectively.

  For this reason, the vehicular lamp according to the second embodiment to which the projector unit 16 is applied can improve the light use efficiency of the sub-LED 4, so that the illuminance can be further improved.

The projector unit applied to the vehicle lamp as 1st Embodiment of this invention is shown, (a) is a top view, (b) is sectional drawing which follows the Ib-Ib line of (a), (c) is a front view. It is. It is a schematic perspective view of the vehicle lamp of FIG. FIG. 1 is an irradiation light distribution pattern of the projector unit in FIG. 1, (a) is an irradiation light distribution pattern of the projector optical unit, (b) is an irradiation light distribution pattern of the diffusion optical unit, and (c) is an entire irradiation light distribution pattern. . It is sectional drawing corresponding to FIG.1 (b) of the projector unit applied to the vehicle lamp as 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a front view of the conventional vehicle lamp. It is a schematic diagram explaining the optical path of the projector unit applied to the vehicle lamp of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

1 Main LED
1a Light emitting part (main LED)
2 Main reflector 3 Convex lens 4 Sub LED
4a Light emitting part (sub LED)
5 Sub reflector 6 Heat sink 6a Top surface (of heat sink)
6b Bottom surface (of heat sink)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Vehicle lamp 13, 16 Projector unit D Diffusion optical part P Projector optical part

Claims (2)

A vehicular lamp provided with a plurality of projector units each including a projector optical unit that emits hot zone light distribution by emitting the light of the main LED as it is or after being reflected by the main reflector and then emitting forward through a convex lens. Because
The projector unit is configured to include a diffusion optical unit that irradiates a diffused light distribution by reflecting the light of the sub LED by the sub reflector, and then emitting it forward as it is, at the lower part of the projector optical unit. And
The main LED constitutes a light source of the projector optical unit by being fixed to the upper surface of the heat sink with the light emitting portion facing upward and facing the main reflector.
The secondary LED constitutes the light source of the diffusion optical unit is fixed to the lower surface of the heat radiating plate is opposed to the secondary reflector and the light emitting portion downward,
The projector unit combines the hot zone light distribution and the diffuse light distribution.
A vehicular lamp characterized by irradiating a combined light distribution . The vehicular lamp according to claim 1,
The vehicular lamp, wherein the sub LED is fixed to the lower surface of the heat radiating plate in a state where the light emitting portion is inclined rearward.

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